Military Night in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Lynx today announced that they will honor current and past members of all branches of the military during their Military Night Celebration on July 3 when they host the Phoenix Mercury.

The celebration will include the singing of the National Anthem by Sgt. Jennifer Kruse alongside the color guard provided by the University of Minnesota’s ROTC program.

Members of the military will be honored during the first quarter of Tuesday’s game. During the second quarter, the Minnesota Lynx along with the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund’s Co-Chair and Founder Michael Gorman will present four Purple Heart recipients with a grant from the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund and the team’s Heroes in the Making award.

Military members and their families will also receive complimentary tickets to the game.

Good connection with the patriotic July 4th holiday and perhaps a way to broaden the base of WNBA fans in Minneapolis.

Many teams have also used pre-game for a swearing in ceremony for new recruits. Often its hard to know the depth of the promotion through a press release.

As we often talk about with promotions, connecting promotions across as many aspects of your fan experience is key. Does the mascot have a skit or dress in military fatigues, do your ushers pass out American flags or wear flag lapel pins, do your players film vignettes relating their thanks or military experiences, is there a concourse booth for the military recruitment offices?

Again it should be noted, I don’t know what they did beyond what was noted in this press release.
The Gameops.com Promotion Database is a great source when fine tuning promotions. In this case if you search for “military” on the searchable database eight promotions are listed so you can see what others have done to expand your idea even further.

-Cudo